Kiefer
by Auslly Shipper 15
Summary: The king explains what happened up to those 18 years after his daughter disappered, the day of the laterns, the day she returns, and the future. *Sucky Summary*


Marriage was nothing I had ever thought of before until the time came when my parents starting pressuring me into it – much to my dismay due to my love of the single life. I when I was giving the choices of suitors none of them where even remotely close to who I would have picked. The first was a heavier woman with quite large breasts (not that I minded) but she also had a horrid uni-brow and I had to think of future children as well. The second woman was clearly trying to pass off as someone from my Kingdom, but she was clearly from England (and my rivalry with the prince did not help her chances at all.) And about six months into finding my suitor, my parents finally gave in and let me pick my own bride (an accomplish of no easy task.)

The next day I set of into the place – disguised as best as possible – to look for a future wife. And by the end of the day I had found her – Gretchen. Gretchen. _Gretchen_. How could I not be happy with Gretchen as a wife. And by the end of the year I was married to Gretchen and my parents stepped down from the thrown to allow us to take over – after giving Gretchen a year or so lessons on how to be a proper queen.

Two or three years into our marriage we decided to have a child, and since any gender of our child could rule, we would be happy with either a boy or a girl. But, having a child became quite hard for us. We just couldn't have the child that we had been praying for since our decision. Five years had passed since our decision and still no bouncing royal children on the front lawn of the castle. We set out for answers and found a woman to do a spell to help Gretchen become pregnant. And three months later we were expecting our first child.

We were quite happy as our little small family that was growing everyday.

Until six months into Gretchen's pregnancy when she became sick. Sicker than I'd ever seen her before, sicker than I'd seen anyone ever before. And to be honest – it frightened me. I cried for quite a long time as I poured over as many medical books that the castle's library had (at a grand total of three). I then turned to a book of the Kingdom's fairytales and read of a story of a magic golden flower.

_A single drop of sunlight fell from the heavens, and from this single drop of sun grew a magic golden flower. It had the ability to heal the sick and injured. To get this flower to help all you have to do is sing a simple song, "Flower, gleam and glow, let your powers shine, make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine, what once was mine." It appears that when the song is sung a speck of pollen is released for the singer to use and be affected by the magic._

It seemed like the perfect thing for not only my child but for Gretchen. So I set out all of my guards to look for this flower. And by the end of the week it was found and brought back to the castle. I placed this flower into a bowl of water and told my wife to sing the enchantment and to drink the water, and just like that she was better.

The rest of the pregnancy goes by and we pick out names – Rapunzel for a girl (a popular fairytale we had here. Seemed like a good idea since a fairytale saved my family) and Ivan for a boy. Then our beautiful and healthy girl Rapunzel was born with flowing locks of golden hair – I decided it was from the flower and not Gretchen having an affair like most men would think.

A few weeks passed with us as the happy little family we were – I think the kingdom forgot that had two rulers seeing that they never saw us during this time. But then it happened, Rapunzel disappeared in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. Once again I sent out guards to look for the person who took my child and my child – hopefully alive and well. And unlike last time when they came back with the flower in a week, the guards came back empty handed.

Gretchen and I were heartbroken and spent the next months crying. We didn't do anything. And we knew it was impossible to have a child again because the golden flower was gone. Our golden flower was gone. And over the next eighteen years I felt emptier and emptier and emptier as the days, hour, minutes, and seconds drug on, and on, and on.

Then over the course of a couple of days, something happened. A thief by the name of Flynn Rider stole Rapunzel's crown. I had heard of Flynn Rider of course but I showed no real concern because he had never murdered anyone (to my knowledge) and I knew he was stealing to survive like a lot of the town folks. But his stealing the crown didn't make exactly happy and the guards went to chase him down, but they came back empty handed and missing a horse. And the fact that he stole the crown the day before what would have been Rapunzel's eighteenth birthday did not help his case.

The same day the guards got a tip that he was at the Snuggling Duckling – a place for the weirdest set of thieves to have ever existed. But when the guards got there, he was gone. They found out how he had left and perused him, and he was flanked by none other than a girl with ridiculously long, golden hair who was about eighteen years old. He and the girl escaped after the old mine flooded, so naturally the guards thought they had drown, and so they came back to the kingdom to get ready for the lantern festival Gretchen and I had held for Rapunzel.

The night passed and so did the next day without any signs of Flynn or anyother crime for that matter. Perfect.

At night Gretchen comes into Rapunzel's nursery and cries with me. I don't know how long we are like this until a guard comes in and tells us it is time. We release our lantern and then are followed by thousands of other lanterns from the kingdom's residence. It is truly beautiful and perfect, and then Gretchen and I go back inside and cry in our room together until we fall asleep.

The next afternoon I am informed that Flynn Rider had been caught and was to be hanged later on in the day. Then an hour or so later I am told that he escaped. Joy oh joy this Rider has caused me these last few days. I don't sleep quite soundly that night because I have this feeling that something major will be happening the next day and I don't know if it is good or bad.

I spend the whole day as a bunch of nerves, enough so that Gretchen tells me to not do anything that we were supposed to do in the kingdom. It could be rescheduled for a later day. How did I end up so lucky to have a woman like her for twenty-five years.

By noon that day a guard comes in and tells me something quite peculiar.

"Your majesties?"

"Yes, Hanz," Gretchen says holding my hand from a chair next to the bed.

"There is woman here who claims to be Rapunzel. The only problem is that she doesn't have the golden locks that she was born with." I sit up immediately after this statement.

"What color hair does she have exactly?" I ask, attempting to keep my voice from cracking from the tears in my eyes. My daughter might finally be home!

"Brown, sir."

"Go get her!"

"Yes, sir," Hanz replies, not bothering to shut the door. Gretchen and I dress quickly and run down to the balcony where we are told she is. When I see her there is no doubt that she is Gretchen's child. Same facial shape, same nose, same eyes, same smile. Same everything. Gretchen, Rapunzel, and I hug falling to our knees. Everything is perfect. When we stop hugging I realize there is a man with her.

"And who are you?" I ask. Gretchen places her hand on my arms, "Don't jump to conclusions, Kiefer." I wave her off, something that I have a feeling I'll probably get in trouble for later. She ruled over me basically and I had learned to accept that.

"Eugene Fitzherbert, and if you try to do a background check, you probably won't come up with anything really great. If you look up the name I have been using since I was sixteen you'll find a lot. Flynn Rider. Please don't hurt me! I have her crown right here." And there it was in his satchel. It took a lot of convincing on his part (mainly to me and the guards) to allow him to marry my daughter, but he did, eventually. And two years after getting my daughter back, I sent her on to her own suitor. She like me found her own suitor, but unlike Gretchen and I, Flynn and Rapunzel have no problems having children consider three weeks into their marriage they conceived a boy named Flanagan and a girl named Elisabeth. She's due any moment now and I can't wait to step down a month after they are born to pass down the thrown to Flynn/Eugene and Rapunzel.

I can just live a normal life as an ex-king. I can be a normal-ish grandfather. I can live the normal life I wish I could have had these last five decades.


End file.
